ABSTRACT
The growth of nationalism in Central Asia has been a product of center-periphery disagreement and anti-colonial attitudes. The most vivid example of the transformation of cultural autonomy into nationalism is provided by the events in the Caucasus during 1988. In many parts of the developing world of Africa and the Middle East, nationalism arises as a creation of a mobilizational elites’ attempting to harness political dissatisfactions or resentments to their own political agendas. The Armenian brand of nationalism must be distinguished from such instrumental nationalisms. The profound upswelling of ethnic sentiment was especially visible in the republics of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Baltics. The provocative replacement of Dinmukhamed Kunaev with the ethnic Russian Genadii Kolbin as first secretary of Kazakhstan occurred in December 1986. The Soviet Union, however, officially denied their existence, calling the documents falsified provocations.
